266 NATURAL SCIENCE. Oct., 



sation, by which means the horticulturist often succeeds in blending 

 or modifying the colours and forms of two very different varieties or 

 even species, one result of which is a tendency to revert, and the 

 gooseberry in question may have owed its diversity to this. The 

 tuberous Begonia, for instance, which now forms one of the most 

 salient features of our shows, began its upward career with a blend of 

 two distinct species. This blend, in its first results, yielded plants of 

 very different habits to either parent. Fortunately, the alliance was a 

 fertile one, hence propagation by seed and selection of offspring 

 presented no difficulty. It was speedily seen that the two species 

 were sufficiently at variance in the blood of their joint progeny to 

 induce an immense divergency of type, and seed being sown from 

 the most diverse forms, the final result was that no two of a batch 

 were quite alike. Here, of course, was the cultivator's opportunity, 

 and in the hands of Mr. J. Laing and Mr. H. Cannell, in the course 

 of twenty years most magnificent strains of huge double and single 

 flowers, of all habits and all tints of white, salmon, and red, have 

 culminated in constituting the naturally insignificant begonia a fair 

 rival to the very Queen of Flowers herself, barring her perfume. 

 Here is, indeed, a triumph of Art over Nature, so far as the art of 

 selection is concerned. 



What, however, the public do not see, though they feel it in the 

 high prices necessarily demanded for the results, are the thousands 

 upon thousands of worthless plants which accompany the good 

 ones. Often and often, and especially in the earlier stages of 

 development, the cultivator has to raise to blooming point, 

 or, worse still, in the case of trees, to fruiting point, an enormous 

 number of seedlings in which he may vainly search for a " break" 

 in the right direction. This " break," obtained, however, he starts 

 under ever-improving auspices, until — as in the case of Begonias in 

 question — he finds his best flowers barren, their extreme development 

 being at the cost of their reproductive energy. 



Then, too, it is a rare thing indeed for the breeder to be 

 perfectly satisfied. Frequently, when his flower is perfected as regards 

 the blossom beyond his utmost expectation, the stalk is too short to 

 display it properly or too weak to keep it upright. A heavy double 

 flower with a pendulous habit will not do. It must look you boldly 

 in the face and display its charms effectively. In time this is 

 generally arrived at by judicious crossing, or it may be by simple 

 selection of seedlings, provided always the utterly barren stage has 

 not been reached. 



Fashion plays a large role in horticulture. Dahlias, for instance, 

 starting from a simple single starlike bloom were transmuted by long 

 years of selection into huge spherical masses of regularly folded 

 petals, and decorated with any colour desired except the unattainable 

 blue. Suddenly the aesthetic craze steps in with the sunflower as its 

 floral deity, and lo ! the dahlia must be single and the cultivators 



